Don't worry about your first class. Worry about your first five classes

The first lesson with a new high school class — particularly at a new school — can be nerve wracking. There’s potentially a lot of pressure to ‘get it right’ and ‘set the tone’. My view: don’t worry about getting the first lesson perfect. Instead, have a great plan of attack for the first few classes.

There are so many things to establish when you get a new class. You need to introduce yourself, set behaviour and homework expectations, talk about the content you’ll be working on (and the assessments), learn students’ names and learning tendencies…

It’s a big ask. 

There’s a quote I think about a lot. I heard it from Tony Robbins, but the quote has many authors. The quote goes something like: “people overestimate how much they can achieve in one year, but underestimate how much they can achieve in five years”. 

We can apply this to a new class. It’s challenging to do a lot in class one …but by the end of class five or 10, things can become clearer and patterns more established.

A unifying principle

My goal for the first few classes is to establish myself as an organised and approachable teacher. 

What does being organised mean? I’ve got a plan and I’m working hard to make the class run as smoothly as possible. I’ve got the materials I need. The learning management system (LMS) is setup and regularly updated, including with details of the assessment tasks.

What does being approachable mean? I’m greeting students as they arrive and doing my best to learn about their individual interests. I’ll answer your questions and, if I don’t have the answers, I’ll make a note and follow this up. I’m going to smile and make jokes. I don’t subscribe to the “don’t smile until Easter” theory. 

The first class

My expectations are relatively low for the first class. It’s a new group of students, potentially all unknown, at the start of a fresh school year. 

I’m going to settle the class, welcome everyone and mark the roll. There’s no need for students to go around and introduce themselves. They either know each other or are going to be around each other all day every day. I don’t give students a questionnaire to fill out — I’ll learn about them as the term/year progresses.

I’ll introduce the content for the term and outline the assessment task. We’ll then check out the LMS and do a short activity — tangentially related to the content, definitely engaging — and submit our work on the LMS.

And that’s it. Over the next few classes, we’ll start on the class content. I’ll also get into behaviour and homework expectations, and the consequences of not meeting these.  

But don’t you need to do more in the first class?

After all, doesn’t the first class set the tone?

The first class sets a tone. It doesn’t set the tone. I can always course correct if the class is going off the rails. 

I once had a Year 9/10 class that was very large and very messy. I did a hard reset. I imposed a seating plan. I wrote up more detailed behavioural expectations and printed these out for students. I sent an email home detailing the issues with the class and the steps I’d taken, as well as the consequences for misbehaviour.

You can always take steps to set a new tone. Just ‘tone down’ the importance of the very first class.

You’re not perfect. So why pretend to be a perfect teacher?

As a student teacher, new teacher or an experienced teacher at a new school, you might feel the pressure to present a highly polished image.

I suggest you leave this polished image behind. 

Think about it this way. You’ve been (and may still be) a student. Part of being a student is experiencing frustrations, disappointments and the occasional success. You might have even made mistakes — potentially some very notable ones.

Embrace this reality and leave the highly polished image behind. 

In the classroom you can do this by sharing your mistakes with students. In my opinion, great teachers discuss their own mistakes during student interactions. When you’re working with students think about using language such as:

• “When I did questions like this, here are the typical mistakes I made…”

• “This is the strategy I used to deal with questions like this. It wasn’t very successful. What I did instead was…”

• “I didn’t do as well as I wanted to do on a task like this. This was what I did next…”

From a pedagogy perspective, I reckon you’re demonstrating two valuable teaching traits.

1. You’re modelling good practice. You’re demonstrating the importance of understanding your mistakes and using this information to improve. 

2. You’re building relationships with students. You’re being honest with your students and discussing your own personal challenges, in a way that’s relevant to them. Hopefully you’re doing this with a good sense of humour.

Your imperfection can be a terrific tool in building rapport with students and helping them view their mistakes in a more positive light.

6 mistakes that new teachers make

These are just six of my favourite mistakes.

1. Being friendly rather than firm

As a new teacher, you’re treading a tough tightrope. On the one hand, you want to be firm and set boundaries. On the other, you want to be friendly and form a report with students.

You may not get this right straight away. Or even in your first year or two. 

The main mistake I see here is that new teachers err on the side of friendly. More ‘friendly’ language would be saying things “guys” when you’re referring to the class, or words like “come on” when you’re trying to get their attention. 

Instead, if you need the class's attention, state the year group. “Year eight,” for example. Also, ask for what you specifically need. For example, “Right now, I need your attention Year Eight. I won’t proceed until I have quiet.” And then wait. Be firm in your commands.

2. Not being friendly enough

Contradictions already!

When I was doing my teacher training I received this piece of advice: “Don’t smile until Easter.”

(For context: in Australia our school year runs calendar year. So we start late Jan and Easter marks the end of first term.)

The advice, “don’t smile until Easter”, is notionally about being firm and not showing a softer side until you’ve embedded some tougher routines. I failed this piece of advice from day one. 

It’s okay to smile, crack jokes and poke fun. But you also need to be firm when it’s required. 

3. Planning worksheets rather than lesson goals

An excellent worksheet can truly make a lesson. One lesson. But what happens next lesson? And then next week?

Spend more time on the lesson goals than the worksheets. Think about:

• What content should they learn from the lesson?

• What skills should they develop?

• What connections should they make between content areas?

Answer these questions first. Then, choose activities that best address these lesson goals. Spoilers: it might not be a worksheet.

4. Being inconsistent with consequences

From an early stage, students should be clear on the major consequences for their actions.

What happens when students don’t complete their homework once? What about the third time? 

How about the consequences for turning up late to class? And if this becomes a habit? 

The point here is that you want students to know that if they do X, Y will happen. There is no negotiation or uncertainty. It’s just the way you’ve structured your classroom.

You might be lucky and the school has developed a set of consequences. Or you may have the flexibility to devise your own. Either way, avoid being inconsistent. That can create extra challenges.

5. Trying to change the organisation too quickly

You arrive at the school and you start to see things that you think should change. Your intentions are good. But your pace is too fast.

Take note of the things you think should be improved. But resist the temptation to try and change them too quickly. Over time, there’s the possibility you can make adjustments. Right now, just know that organisations tend to change very slowly — particularly when the suggestions come from very new staff members.

6. Continually questioning your career choice

Stop asking yourself whether you should have become a teacher.

During my first year of teacher, I continually questioned my decision. Every bad day would be another prompt to ask: “Should I have become a teacher?”

It’s not a helpful question. You’re here now. Give yourself a period of time before you really interrogate whether you should continue. 

The constant questioning will undermine your confidence and motivation. So try and avoid it.

Bonus tip: Be helpful 

This is my advice for prac teachers but is very useful for new teachers too. Check it out below.